Micro-scale gyroscopes are commonly used in sensors to detect orientation and/or movement. For example, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) gyroscopes can provide cost effective solutions for producing small-scale gyroscopic sensors. Micro-scale gyroscopes are used in inertial measurement units (IMUs). IMUs are electronic devices that can be used to detect velocity, orientation, and gravitational forces. IMUs can include both gyroscopes and accelerometers. An IMU typically includes three gyroscopes, each configured to measure one access of input rotation. For example, one gyroscope in the IMU could detect pitch of an aircraft, a second gyroscope in the IMU could detect roll, and a third gyroscope could detect yaw of the aircraft. IMUs are used in a number of applications, including automobiles, still frame and video camera systems, video game controllers, tablet computers or other handheld computer systems, and mobile phone handsets.
Tuning fork gyroscopes are one variety of gyroscope that are often used to in IMUs to measure about one axis of input rotation per tuning fork. Measurement about two axes can be achieved by mounting two tuning fork gyroscope sensors perpendicular to one another on the same plane. However, to realize measurements about the third axis, a third tuning fork gyroscope would need to be mounted out-of-plane from the other two tuning fork gyroscope sensors. This configuration can result in a larger form factor for the IMU, which can preclude the use of the IMU in some space constrained applications. For example, the form factor of tablet computers or mobile phone handsets may not have sufficient space available to accommodate the form factor of the IMU.